Use committed billing for a load balancer

A committed plan charges a load balancer for a fixed period up front, in place of the hourly price. Choose it for a load balancer you plan to keep for the whole period. You can launch a load balancer on a committed plan, or convert an hourly one later, and you choose what happens when the period ends. Every plan has committed periods of 90, 183, and 365 days, listed with the plan and its prices. For current prices, see E2E’s pricing page.

A committed load balancer keeps its plan for the committed period. Choose the plan you need before you commit. To upgrade, use hourly billing; see Power off, start, or upgrade a load balancer.

Before you begin

• Your account has the infra credits for the full committed price, or is billed after use. The full price for the period is deducted from your infra credits, or added to your bill, when you commit.
• You plan to keep the load balancer for the whole period. If you delete it early, the full committed price stays charged.
• Your role in the project has the create permission for Load Balancers to launch, or the update permission to convert or change the settings.

Launch on a committed plan

1. On the create flow’s Plan step, click the plan, and under —Choose Hourly / Committed LB—, choose one of its committed options. See Create an Application Load Balancer.
2. Finish the other steps, and click Launch Load Balancer on Summary.
3. In Committed LB Confirmation, tick the box that begins I understand that on creation of this committed Load Balancer. By ticking it, you agree to keep the load balancer for the whole committed period, until its end date.
4. Choose what happens at the end of the period. To decide, see Choose what happens when the period ends.
   • Auto-renew the committed period starts a new committed period when this one ends.
   • Switch to hourly billing moves the load balancer to the plan’s hourly price when the period ends.
5. Click Proceed, which is available once the box is ticked. MyAccount creates the load balancer and returns you to the Load Balancers list.

You can change the end-of-period choice later, and add auto deletion, in Committed LB settings; see Choose what happens when the period ends.

Convert an hourly load balancer

Convert to Committed is in the Actions menu of an hourly load balancer whose plan has committed options.

1. In MyAccount, under Compute, click Load Balancers. In the load balancer’s row, open Actions, and click Convert to Committed.
2. In Committed Load Balancer Conversion, pick a committed option.
3. Tick the agreement that the full cost is deducted from your infra credits or billed.
4. Click Convert.

Convert is available once your infra credits cover the conversion. Buy more infra credits if they fall short.

The load balancer is now committed, set to renew at the end of the period. To change that, see Choose what happens when the period ends.

Choose what happens when the period ends

To keep the public IP when the load balancer is deleted at the end of the period, reserve it first; see Manage a load balancer’s network and security groups.

1. In the load balancer’s row, open Actions, and click Committed LB settings.
2. In Committed Load Balancer Settings, choose one:
   • Auto-renew the committed period starts a new period, on the committed option you pick. Choose it to keep the load balancer at the committed price.
   • Apply hourly billing as per the base rate of the plan moves it to hourly billing. Choose it to keep using the load balancer after the period without a new commitment.
   • Auto deletion of this committed node deletes the load balancer when the period ends. Choose it only when you are sure you will no longer need the load balancer.
3. Click Update Settings.

Check the committed plan

On the load balancer’s Info tab, Active Committed Plan shows the committed option, Committed Period Ends On the end date, and Committed Node Settings what happens then.

The amount charged for the period stays as it is, even if you delete the load balancer early; see Delete a load balancer.